Monte Pittman interview

Monte Pittman is perhaps a name you’ve not heard before. His two major guitar-playing jobs have been with the recently (OK, year 2000) reinvented Prong, and as Madonna’s touring guitarist since 2001. In and around these, he’s released several acoustic albums.

So, all about variety then.

His latest release, out on January 27th, is very much in the metal genre. The Power of Three was due to be part of a trilogy (acoustic, metal, blues), but with his signing to Metal Blade and the fact that the album’s turned out so damn well it seems that Monte has decided to stick with the heavy stuff.

The only problem I had with this interview was time. Monte’s full of great stories and I could easily have spent a couple of hours asking him about people he’s met, worked with, bumped into and so on.

I mean, a man who gets to play guitar for one of the biggest solo stars on the planet because he happens to end up teaching guitar to her boyfriend obviously has a bit more luck than most! As you can tell from some of the things he talks about, he’s very much living the dream and he knows it!

The charity of which Monte is an honorary board member is Little Kids Rock. I just wanted to give that a quick mention as it’s a great cause, ensuring that children in even deprived areas have a chance to discover music.

Do note that I’m not crawling when I mention how good I think the album is in this interview. It genuinely is a great listen and it’s well worth checking out a few of the tracks (and then, obviously, buying it!).

Enjoy listening to the interview, download it and treat it as a podcast or – by all means – transcribe it for your own site. All I ask is a link back here and some credit; and let me know so I can give you a link in return.